Pole-mounted flags deserving of presentation are typically those representing a nation, company, university, or other prestigious organization and intended to, by the elevation, care and clear visualization of such flags, instill a sense of respect and awe for the organization whose memory is recalled. There is no better time for effective visualization of such a flag than at night. All prior art for presentation of flags at night is directed at the same basic requisite function—to illuminate the flag while minimizing lighting equipment and utility costs. The advantage and disadvantage of a ground mounted, high-powered spotlight has been obvious since the 1800's. Regardless of its ground level distance from the flag pole, a single beam of light directed at a flag from ground level generally loses the dramatic of such lighting through about three fourths of a flag's potential radial extension from the pole as wind direction causes the flag to be blown in several different directions. It is well known to place a ground level directional light in the direction of the prevailing wind so that a flag will be illuminated much of the time. An obvious solution is to increase the number of ground level directional lights to ring the flagpole, with subsequent increase in equipment and utility costs. Ground level equipment is a barrier to traffic about the flag pole but it convenient for maintenance.
Not so for sources of illumination raised to the top of a flagpole. Maintenance must essentially be eliminated for a source of light raised to a top of a flagpole to illuminate a flag flying just below and adjacent to that source of light. That requirement alone eliminates from consideration of practical use many proposed devices in the prior art which are intended to illuminate a direction-changing, wind blown flag. A structure at the top of a flagpole experiences the most severe of local weather conditions in terms of extremes of temperature and precipitation, as well as receiving the occasional well-fed avian visitor and its excremental deposits. The requirements of a flag-top illumination device must be minimal to avoid taking the entire pole down or to bring to the flag pole a personnel lift of extreme lifting height to conduct repairs or replacement of equipment. At the minimum, any illumination source for a pole-top light must have an exceptionally long life and operate substantially to accomplish its illumination job in at least partial failure mode so maintenance can be delayed until regularly planned events.
A further challenge in providing illumination of a wind blown flag is to provide directionally efficient lighting. A simple pole-top light wired to a ground level source of electricity and having a transparent or translucent globe draws attention more to the light than to the illuminated flag. Its axial location provides a point source illumination more to the sky than to the desired flag lighting. However, such a simple device provides illumination for the radial extension of the flag in its potentially 360 degree travel path.
A rather simple-minded but ineffective improvement to the light bulb on top of the flag pole is found in U.S. Pat. No. 7,275,495. The '495 patent discloses what is essentially a replacement of the light bulb which illuminates spherically with a flashlight aimed at an angle of about 45 degrees downward and outward (but mounted within) from a decorative sphere at the top of the flagpole. It is rotatable via its integration with the pulley wheels for flag-elevating and supporting rope or cable so that a rotation of the flag about the pole pulls at the supporting rope, which in turn pulls at the pulley, which in turn pulls at the flashlight to kind of direct it toward the new direction of the flag. The requisite broad downward angle of the light cause it to, like the simple pole top light, illuminate unnecessary space and often not the space in which the flag is to be found. A ground level viewer will be somewhat blinded by the light in favor of viewing the flag.
The '425 patent identifies a problem which its intended device does not solve. While such a device allows for the use of less light than a floodlight, it still does not solve the problem of illuminating more of the surrounding sky than the flag itself.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved pole top light which minimizes requirement for any maintenance, operates in substantial failure mode to effect illuminating a flag, and is exceptionally responsive directionally for nighttime illumination of the flag in whatever direction it is moved by the wind.